StarCraft II: Rise of the Claymore
by Vineman
Summary: When Clare is kidnapped to be studied by the Dominion, Raki and Raynor lead a mixed and matched team of Raynor's Raiders and Miria's Claymores to save her.  Short Side Project I had an idea for . Based after Wings of Liberty.
1. Clare's Capture

**STARCRAFT II:**

**Rise of the Claymore**

**Dominion Flagship Norad III: Low Orbit over planet Talderan: 14:30 Shipboard Time.**

"General, we have reached Talderan," the Norad III Adjutant reported as Warfield looked out the window at the world.

"I want all known information about this planet." General Warfield demanded of the Adjutant.

"Sir, this world is an underdeveloped world possessing technology levels of approximately medieval era Earth. Unidentified alien organisms, dubbed by the local population as Yoma have become an increasing problem on planet. Data shows that these Yoma are artificially created creatures. The unnamed organization responsible for their creation has also created the monsters only counter-measure, warrior women known to the local population as Claymore. Sources suggest that these Claymore may be useful in combating Zerg forces which is why we have come here."

"Patch me through to the team who will be performing this operation," Warfield ordered.

"As you wish, General," the Adjutant replied as a communication screen flipped on.

"This is Nova," the woman who appeared on screen declared. She had short blonde hair which she wore a visor over. Her body was covered by a skin tight white suit which was covered with thick grey armor. The standard load-out of a high ranking, female, Dominion Ghost.

"Now, Nova, I know that I do not have to stress that vitality of this operation. You must bring back one of these Claymore alive, do you understand?"

"Copy, General. I'll bring back one of them alive," Nova declared.

"Good, remember that this is a sensitive operation. Restrain from the use of lethal force if at all possible," General Warfield ordered.

"Got it. Stealth mission. Don't worry General; we'll take care of everything. Nova out."

"I hope so," Warfield declared walking away from the control panel and exiting the BattleCruiser's control room.

"You heard him boys, let's get this over with," Nova ordered as a team of ten Dominion Ghosts boardered a Special Ops Dropship.

**Planet Talderan: 14:50 Planet Time.**

"Hey! Clare! Wait up!" Raki called, "what's the hurry?"

"Huh, oh sorry Raki," Clare replied looking over her shoulder at her young companion, "I was distracted that's all."

"You've been distracted a lot lately. Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Clare replied simply turning and facing her young companion. Her silver eyes looked unusually tired, especially for a Claymore. Raki knew something was wrong, but decided it was best not to ask.

"I'm… a little bit hungry," Clare revealed turning away again, "let's rest here. She removed the thick traveling cloak she had been wearing revealing her skin tight, black body suit which she had worn since her days as a rebel Claymore. Three years had passed since their final battle with the Organization. Since then Clare and Raki had been traveling together, exterminating the planets remaining Yoma. Despite the fact that the Organization had been overthrown, the number of Yoma inhabiting their island hadn't gone down at all. Clare often found herself wondering just how many the Organization had created before it had toppeled.

"Alright, wait here. I'll go find us something to eat," Raki declared heading out into the forest. Clare pulled out her Claymore and stuck it into the ground, then sat down, leaning against the sword to rest. She had been unusually tired as of late. At first she had thought that something had begun to change about her Yoma powers, but a stop in Rabona to speak with Galatea had put that fear to rest. This was something else. Something was wrong, but she had no way of knowing what.

Just outside of the clearing where Clare was resting, Nova kneeled behind a tree looking out at her target. One of the Ghosts she had brought with her was following the boy, making sure he didn't return while she and the other nine scoped out their target.

"Silver eyes and blonde hair," Nova said, "she's one of them. Alright boys, let's take her. Remember, we need her alive so use stun rounds, and be careful. We don't know what these Claymore are capable of so stay out of sight," Nova ordered loading a shell into her Sniper Rifle. Shouldering her weapon she aimed out until her crosshairs were pointing at the center of Clare's chest. "Fire!" she ordered pulling the trigger.

….

Clare's sharp ears caught Nova's command and in a flash her sword was in her hand. Holding it over her chest she deflected Nova's shot then sprung towards the nearest foe. The Ghost was caught completely unaware as the Claymore sliced through his torso cleaving him in half. Clare winced as several shots from the remaining Ghosts struck her in the back and knocked her to her knees. Recovering quickly, Clare jumped back towards two Ghosts.

"Engage Cloaking!" Nova ordered as all 8 remaining Ghosts suddenly disappeared from sight. Clare stopped short as they vanished from sight and began listening for them. Three more shells pelted her from behind knocking her over again as the Ghosts began to open fire from all directions. Clare was powerless as her arms went numb and her sword fell from her grip. She rolled onto her back as Nova suddenly appeared above her.

"Good night," Nova declared pointing the sniper rifle at Clare's chest and pulling the trigger. A burst of electricity shot through the Claymore's body and she lost consciousness. "We've got her," Nova said into a radio, "come pick us up!"

"Leave Clare alone!" a man's voice suddenly called! Raki burst out of the trees and charged at Nova his broadsword raised. Suddenly, his entire body went limp and he fell forward landing at Nova's feet. A stun dart stuck from his back.

"Sorry ma'am, he knew I was following him somehow and slipped away," a Ghost declared disengaging his cloak, "I barely caught up with him."

"Leave him here," Nova ordered, "our orders were to grab her. Shackle her and get her ready for transport."

"Yes ma'am," the Ghosts responded as they went to work shackling Clare's arms and legs with thick bonds that were usually used for shackling Ultralisks. A few minutes later, a tightly bound and still unconscious Clare was loaded into a Special Ops Dropship and was being taken aboard the Norad III.


	2. The Dominion

**STARCRAFT II:**

**Rise of the Claymore**

**Planet Talderan: 17:00 Planet Time. Two Days Later.**

Raki moaned as he slowly began to wake up. It took several minutes for his vision to clear, but as it did, he realized that he was lying in a bed within a large stone bedroom. Standing over him were two men. One was an old, kind looking, bald man, the other, a strong, firm looking man. Raki recognized them both immediately.

"Father Vincent? Galk? Where…?" he asked with some difficulty. His head was still throbbing with pain.

"You're in Rabona, child, you're alright," Father Vincent replied.

"Oh no! Where's Clare!" Raki shouted suddenly remembering what had happened.

"I'm sorry," Father Vincent replied.

"Galatea sensed something was amiss with Clare's yoki, so a few of us decided to go and make sure that the two of you were alright. We found you unconscious in a forest clearing and Clare was nowhere to be found," Galk revealed looking sad.

"Someone… attacked us," Raki declared, "their weapons and clothing… I'd never seen anything like them."

"You will soon," Galk declared looking extremely angry.

"What do you mean?" Raki asked. Father Vincent pointed to a window, and slowly, Raki walked over and looked out the window. His eyes showed obvious shock and dismay as he witnessed what was happening outside the Rabona Cathedral. Several of the homes and buildings had been cleared away in order to make room for other buildings, the likes of which Raki had never seen while men marched up and down the streets wearing strange red armor and carrying even stranger weapons. The civilians of the city had all been moved to one location where they were being watched by more of the strangely armored soldiers. Raki noticed a strange red symbol etched on the largest of the new buildings. A red shield with a black star and what appeared to be an arm holding a whip inside of it. "Who are they?"

"They call themselves the Terran Dominion," Father Vincent revealed, "only two days ago, they arrived here, subjected the city to their rule, and set up what you see before you. It happened only shortly after we brought you here, actually."

"What do they want?" Raki asked.

"They won't say, but whatever it is, we can only hope they find it soon," Galk declared, "they've been hunting Yoma unceasingly, and the Yoma are beginning to grow tired of their presence here. So much so, that we've received reports from various travelers of a large number of Yoma beginning to form a nest near Rabona. These 'Dominion' guys refuse to take any action against them. Miria has issued an order to all of her Claymore soldiers to return to Rabona and prepare for war, but we don't know how much good it'll do."

"Miria?" Raki repeated as he heard the name. He remembered that after they had taken out the main Organization installations, Miria had recruited several of the Organization's old soldiers in order to form a new army for fighting the yoma that were still being produced by several underground Organization labs. In fact, Clare and he had enlisted with the group, which operated out of a small underground bunker beneath Rabona chapel. They had been on their way to carry out a mission when they had been attacked. "Is she here?"

"She's waiting for you in the command room," a woman's voice said from behind them. The three men turned to see an attractive woman with long, blonde hair and eyes that would have been silver if it weren't for the fact that they were missing.

"Galatea," Raki said as he saw the woman.

"If you're feeling better, then you'd best hurry down to see her," Galatea declared simply.

**Miria's Claymores Command Room: Underground bunker beneath Rabona Cathedral: 17:10 planet time.**

Raki took a deep breath as he entered the secret stairway that led down to the underground bunker of Miria's Claymores. Since the humans still often referred to the new army as Claymores, many of the warriors had begun referring to the new organization as Miria's Claymores. Despite Miria's protests, the name had stuck and now Miria's Claymores where known all across the continent. Though people were still a little nervous about the Claymore, by and large, the fears and rumors concerning them had begun to dissipate, thanks largely to next generation technology that had been pirated from the Organization's main base which had allowed modifications to be made to the Claymores, allowing them to more freely tap into their Yoma powers without awakening, making awakened beings far more rare then they once were, with the exception of several who were still alive from the 1st Claymore generation (the male ones) and several others that were no doubt being artificially produced by the secret Organization labs still littered across the continent.

Miria stood against the far wall of the bunker. Though she was looking away from him, he could tell that she knew he was there. After several minutes she finally spoke.

"What happened, Raki?" she asked simply.

"I'm sorry, Miria, I don't know a lot, but I'll tell you what I do know," he declared retelling what he knew of Clare's capture.

"I see, so they were able to turn invisible at will," Miria declared turning to face Raki after he had finished his tale. She was a beautiful woman with medium length blonde hair which she kept tied up in a pony tale. Her only visible defect was a deep, x shaped scar that ran across her entire face, a souvenir of her final confrontation with the Organization. "Based on what you've told me and the information I've gathered about the Organization myself, I'd have to guess that the ones that took Clare were elite soldiers called Ghosts. They specialize in just that sort of mission, which makes it even more believable. It's likely, Raki, that Clare is no longer on our planet."

"What do you mean?" Raki asked, "how can she not be on the planet?"

"These 'Dominion' guys. You've probably figured it out already, but they aren't from our continent. They aren't even from our world," Miria declared, "Since you're involved in this, you deserve to know everything I've found out. The Dominion is an empire that controls not only countries, but also entire planets. Our planet, which they call Talderan, lies with in their empire, but due to our lack of technology, we'd been primarily left alone up until now. The Dominion wants something from us. They're looking for something with which they can create a new weapon, but my sources were unable to determine what it was. After hearing your story, I'm convinced that what they were after… was a Claymore."

"Wait, then… they took Clare because they're going to do some kind of research on her?" Raki replied.

"As best as I can determine, that seems the most likely case," Miria declared.

"Miria!" a loud, familiar voice called from the top of the stairs. A Claymore with medium length, blonde hair entered the room.

"Helen? What's going on?" Miria asked.

"You've gotta come quick. We're in big trouble!" Helen declared motioning for Miria to follow her.

"Let's go Raki," Miria ordered as the three of them took off up to the Cathedral.


	3. The Dominion's Retreat

**STARCRAFT II:**

**Rise of the Claymore**

**Planet Talderan: 5 Minutes Later**

"Galatea! What's going on!" Miria asked as Helen, Raki, and she arrived in the Rabona chapels main entry.

"We have trouble," Galatea declared motioning them to the side as they noticed 5 Dominion marines standing near the entrance. As the four heroes moved aside, Galatea continued her explanation. "It's the abyssal ones." Raki clenched his teeth when he heard what she said. She was talking about the seven new abyssal ones who had appeared only a year after the fall of the organization. They were a far cry from the three old ones, Isley, Luciela, and Riful, but that didn't mean they weren't bad news. Information that Miria and the others had gathered indicated that these new Abyssal ones were created intentionally by underground remnants of the organization in order to destroy Miria's Claymores. The seven were comprised of three males and four female awakened beings and unlike the original three, these abyssal ones were working together. They were led by the powerful Raphael. In his human form, Raphael looked like a muscular, young man with spiky black hair. No one had ever seen him in his awakened form, at least no one who had lived to tell about it.

The second most powerful one's name was Gakuo. He had heard Clare once compare Gakuo to an awakened being named Dauf who had once served the original Abyssal One, Riful. He was big, strong and stupid in both his human form and his awakened form. His human form was a small, hunchbacked man with muscular arms and legs and messy brown hair, who was missing his left eye. Clare had told him that a Claymore he had killed had managed to cut out his eye and that Gakuo didn't have near the intelligence needed to be able to regenerate it. In his awakened form, Gakuo was easily the largest awakened being Raki had ever encountered. He stood as tall as the outer walls of Rabona with four giant arms and spikes jutting out from the back of his shoulders. Like Dauf, he was covered with a thick, armor like hide, but unlike Dauf, this armor had few weak spots. This was also the source of Gakuo's greatest weakness. The armor didn't bend well and greatly limited Gakuo's movement. There wasn't a Claymore alive who couldn't outmaneuver Gakuo. This fact had almost led to his demise once, long ago, when Miria and Galatea had both decided to personally hunt him down.

Unfortunately, the third abyssal one, Seran saved him. Seran was the complete opposite of Gakuo in nearly every way. Seren's human form was a tall, handsome man with long grey hair who reminded Raki of Isley. He was graceful and intelligent and often times in the past had defeated the Claymores who tried to take him down with only his silver tongue. His awakened form was completely opposite from Gakuo as well, sacrificing all defensive capabilities for raw speed. The awakened form was only about human sized with tiny arms and muscular legs that were built like the legs of a lizard. When Seren cut loose and ran at top speed, only Miria could keep up with him.

Raki didn't know much about the four female abyssal ones. Their names were Milleau, a beautiful young woman with long blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes who acted as Raphael's lover, Zeleta, a cunning woman with short brown hair and dark brown eyes who had a tendency to take advantage of Gakuo's stupidity, Xion, a silver haired woman who was reported to be Seren's lover, and Milleau's twin sister Taleah. According to the reports Raki had heard from Clare and other Claymores, the females rarely engaged in active combat, deferring instead to their male companions. Originally there had been three more creatures, two more males and one more female, but those three had been successfully eliminated by hunting parties led by Miria and Galatea.

Raki waited anxiously for what Galatea was about to tell them all. If the abyssal ones were involved, it wasn't good.

"Last night, I began to detect Yoma and awakened being Yoki auras beginning to converge in a mountain top only a short distance to the north of here. There are to many to accurately determine a number, but there are at least a hundred and at least twenty of those are powerful awakened beings. Then, only a few moments ago, the abyssal ones aura's arrived at the location. I fear that the Dominion's presence here has upset them, and they intend to eliminate them," Galatea revealed.

"And all of Rabona with them," Miria declared clenching her teeth, "does the Dominion's men know about this?"

"I've informed Father Vincent. He said that he would speak with the man in charge of the Dominion army here. Hopefully, they'll provide defense for the city," Galatea declared.

"No! You can't do this!" a loud voice suddenly shouted from down the hall. The three Claymores and Raki quickly headed towards the source of the sound where they found Father Vincent and several more of Rabona's priests arguing with a Dominion soldier. The man was clad in heavy black armor that had the dominion shield painted on the chest plate. His armor was slightly different from the red armor worn by the other soldiers in that it was covered with several more markings that seemed to indicate that this man was the soldiers' leader. His face was covered by a dark red visor but as the Claymore's approached, the visor slowly slid up into the man's helmet revealing a face covered with dozens of scars. He had a brown beard and mustache and a black eye-patch covered his right eye.

"Oh, I don't think you should be tellin' me what I can and can't do 'Father'," the man declared tauntingly, "our business here is done and I don't intend on stayin here and gettin killed for you darn fringe world Neanderthals. Now I'll say it again, just so no one misunderstands. The Dominion is leaving your pathetic little planet and we don't care what happens to you or your people. Heck, as far as I'm concerned, getting rid of all you dumb cavemen would be doin this sector a favor."

"How can you say that!" Father Vincent asked.

"You monsters!" another Priest shouted beginning to approach the commander who pulled his strange weapon to his shoulder, "how can you… uhhh!" the Priests complaints were drowned out as the commander pulled the trigger on his weapon and a loud boom echoed through chapel. The Priest back seemed to explode as he fell back and lay motionless in a pool of his own blood.

"What have you done?" Father Vincent shouted.

"Sorry," the Commander said sarcastically, "honestly, I never can tell when you barbarians are behaving hostil…" he was cut off as his rifle suddenly flew into the air, his hands still attached to it. Miria stood before him, her bloody blade raised as though she had just struck. Before the commander could even react, Miria swung again, stopping the blade inches from the man's throat.

"I'll give you a hint," she declared coldly, "right now, I'm being hostile. Take your worthless trash and leave now or we'll kill every last one of you." Having said her piece, she pulled the blade away from the man's throat, turned, and walked away.

"You'll regret this you witch!" the commander shouted stumbling backwards, "you can't assault an officer of the Terran Dominion and get away with it! You're dead! You hear me! Dead!" Miria glared back at him with a look so frightening, it made him fall over backwards.

"I already know that," Miria declared thinking about the Yoma army that would soon be rampaging through Rabona looking for these evil men who she was allowing to escape, "now if you'll excuse me, I need to get ready to defend my city."

**Planet Talderan: 2 Hours Later**

Miria watched through the window of the top floor of the chapel as the last dropship full of Dominion troops began to fly away. Below, there strange structures lay abandoned. The city guards had begun looting the structures ten minutes ago looking for anything that could help them drive back the Yoma army whom, according to Galatea's report, was preparing to march towards Rabona. Left with no other options, Miria had sent out an urgent message to all 47 of her current warriors summoning them back to Rabona. Already, fifteen warriors had returned including Deneve, Tabitha, Dietrich, Yuma, Cynthia, Audrey, Rachel, Miata, and Clarice. Along with herself, Galatea, Helen, and Raki, that brought there total to 19 defenders, but that wouldn't be nearly enough, especially if their number 2 warrior didn't manage to make it in time.

"Where is she?" Miria asked as Galatea approached her from behind.

"Number 2 is almost here," Galatea replied as Miria turned to face her. She had changed out of her Rabona nun uniform and back into her Miria's Claymore uniform, consisting of a black body suit that covered the arms to the wrists and the feet to the ankles, with thick steel gauntlets covering the arms up to the elbows, steel boots that protected the feet and knees, a steel breastplate, and thick metal skirt to protect the rest of the body. Unlike the Organization who worried more about cost efficient uniforms, Miria had spared no expense in protecting the warriors as best she could without compromising their fighting styles and abilities, and each Claymore's armor was specifically designed with those two things in mind. "With any luck," Galatea continued, "she'll arrive before the Yoma do. It doesn't improve our situation much, Miria. With the numbers we're up against, it doesn't matter how many of our warriors make it back in time, we can't fend off an invasion of this magnitude."

"Have the civilians been evacuated to a safe place?" Miria asked.

"They're taking shelter inside of the chapel. It will be easiest to protect them from here," Galatea revealed. Miria sighed with relief.

"Then we'd better get ready. They'll be here very soon," Miria declared looking out in the direction that the Yoma would be coming from.


	4. Raynor's Raiders

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

**Hyperion: Low Orbit over Planet Talderan: A few minutes later:**

Jim Raynor watched from the bridge of the Hyperion as Norad III jumped to Hyperspace and was lost from sight. He then looked down at the planet from which the Dominion had just departed.

"What do we know about this planet, Matt?" he asked as his second in command, Matt Horner, approached him.

"Honestly, sir, all I've turned up so far is a whole lot of nothing. The planet is called Talderan. It's level of technology is slightly better then medieval, and there are no Mineral or Vespeane deposits anywhere on the planet. I can't find anything that would interest the Dominion in this place," Matt replied.

"They found something here, and we need to figure out what," Raynor replied.

"Commander," the ships Adjutent suddenly came on line, "we are detecting a large unidentified force descending on a settlement on the planets surface in which the Dominion had stationed its headquarters."

"What are they?" Raynor asked.

"Closest bio-sign match suggests that they're Zerg, but they're not like any Zerg I've ever seen," Horner replied looking at the screen of the Bridge's computer, "what's the plan sir."

"Without resources planet side, we aren't gonna be able to produce combat troops in the thick of things," Raynor declared, "we'll have to use the supply caches we have on the Hyperion."

"The Dominion might have helped us at on that. They left a significant cache of supplies and equipment planet-side. I'm not positive, but it looks like the Dominion wanted our mysterious force to attack this settlement, so they left their equipment behind to make it look like they were still there."

"Those supplies'll come in handy," Raynor declared, "alright, let's do this Matt. What's the settlement's name?"

"Rabona sir," Matt replied.

"Rabona… alright, then let's get down there and help these people out," Raynor ordered.

"What about… her, sir? Do you want to take her with you?" Matt asked.

"Of course. She's been cooped up on this tub ever since the fight on Char. It'll do her good to stretch her legs a bit," Raynor replied walking out of the Command Room.

….

**Talderan surface: Rabona: 30 minutes later**

Miria clenched her sword tightly as a cloud of dust appeared on the horizon. The Yoma army was coming. Looking behind her, she scanned the 32 warriors who had made it back in time to aid with the defense. Among them were her numbers 3 through 10, God-eye Galatea, Quick Sword Ilena, Twin Sword Deneve, Gentle Sword Audrey, Helen, Strong Sword Rachel, Air Walker Anastasia, and Tracker Dietrich, as well Miria's other 3 comrades from the Pieta massacre, Number 12, Healer Cynthia, number 14, Detector Tabitha, and number 19, Sniper Yuma. Of the seven Pieta warriors, only the captured Clare was missing of the Pieta Ghosts. Numbers 44 and 45, Miata and Clarice were also present along with several other warriors ranking in the twenties and thirties. Number 2 was still on route as were the other 21 warriors, but it was doubtful that they'd arrive in time. That was probably for the best. Even all of them fighting together wouldn't be able to fend off such a large number of Yoma. A flash of movement caught Miria's attention, causing her to look up. Several blue ships, similar to the ones used by the Dominion, had appeared and were heading towards the city.

"Captain, do you see that?" Deneve asked.

"I do. What do they want now?" Miria cursed under her breath.

"They aren't the same ones!" Raki called suddenly, "look at the symbol drawn on them! It's different!" He was right. Instead of the Dominion shield, these ships bore a different symbol that reminded Miria of two letter R's stuck back to back. What she didn't know at the time was that it was the symbol of Raynor's Raiders. As the ships touched down, several Marines and Marauders pored out of them. Some of them began serching the abandoned Dominion buildings while others carried out guns and weaponry and positioned them around the city wall. One in particular caught Miria's eye. He wore black armor with an orange visor that had a skull painted on it. All of the soldiers were reporting to him, telling Miria that he was their commander.

"Who's in charge here?" the man asked approaching the Claymore. Galk was the first to approach him.

"I'm Commander Galk," the muscular man declared, "I'm in charge of the Rabona town guard."

After Galk had introduced himself, Miria stepped forward. "My name is Miria. Number 1 ranked warrior and leader of Miria's Claymores," she declared coldly while glaring at the man, "who are you?"

"The names Jim Raynor. You can calm down. My boys and I are here to help," Raynor replied as his visor slid up and revealed his face.

"Help? Galk retorted, "I think we got all the help we need from the last group that…"

"We're not with them," a woman with long red hair declared, climbing out of a ship. She wore her hair in a ponytail and covered it with a white visor. Her body was covered by a thick, skin tight white jump suit much like the uniforms of the old Organization except that this woman's body suit had several blue streaks running across it. Every now and again, a green light would move across the streaks and then disappear. In her left hand, she carried a large Sniper Rifle **(A.N: From now on, I'm just gonna say what the weapons are and not worry about the fact that Miria and the others from her world wouldn't know. Otherwise I'm worried that I'm gonna start giving to vague descriptions at some point and people won't know what I'm talking about.) **She approached Miria and offered out her right hand, "Lieutenant Kerrigan, pleased to meet you," the woman declared.

Miria was surprised at first, but quickly regained her composure, reached out, and shook Kerrigan's hand. "Phantom Miria," she replied sounding a lot friendlier then she had before.

"Miria," Kerrigan declared, "we need your help. You know the layout of this city better then we do. We just want to help, but to do that, we need you to tell us about the cities defenses."

"Alright," Miria said after a few moments pause, "I guess I have no choice but to trust you. A wall covers the perimeter of the city. The wall used to be thick enough that the Yoma couldn't get through it except at the gates, but… when they arrived, the Dominion knocked down holes in the wall. I never figured out why."

"I did," Raynor declared checking a device on his arm which displayed satellite feed of the wall from the Hyperion, "these holes are perfectly positioned to allow Siege Tanks to fire out from all sides of the city from inside the wall. Hey! Get those Siege Tanks deployed at the points I'm marking on your maps and get 'em in Siege Mode! Get those SCV's setting up Bunkers at all points of entry outside the wall and get Marauders and Specters lining the wall tops so they can fire down on the enemy when they arrive. What else?"

"The civilians have been pulled into the large chapel in the center of town," Miria continued, "it's a good defensive point and I'm sending three of my best soldiers, Number 5, Deneve, Number 6, Audrey, and Number 10, Dietrich, to oversee its defense."

"Alright, you boys get some Bunkers and Missile Turrets set up around the outside of that chapel and support the soldiers who are there, just in case," Raynor ordered.

"What do you think, Jim?" Kerrigan asked.

"We've got the perimeter secured. Matt, do our opponents have any air capabilities?" Jim asked into his wrist communicator.

"Galatea! Miria shouted, "Air!"

"Twenty of the rare Winged type Yoma!" Galatea called back.

"You're looking at twenty flying Yoma," Miria replied, "they're far more dangerous then regular ones, so we need to take special precautions against them."

"You get all that Matt?" Raynor asked.

"I don't know how they knew that, sir, but they're right. Sensors detect exactly 20 air units approaching your position."

"Get my Vikings in the air!" Raynor ordered, "we'll fight air power with air power!"

"Miria!" Galatea called out, "they're almost here!"

"Lock and load boys!" Raynor ordered opening a compartment on one of the ships and pulling out his giant Sniper Rifle, "it's show time."


	5. The Battle Begins

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

Miria and Raynor watched from the top of Rabona's outer wall as a cloud of dust came into view on the horizon.

"Galatea…!" Miria shouted.

"There are too many of them," Galatea replied, "it all just feels like one giant pool of Yoki. I can't estimate their numbers, but they've definitely got us outnumbered."

"Matt…?" Raynor spoke into his comm.

"I've got the same problem, sir. There're to many to accurately count, but you're looking at least three to four hundred," Matt Horner replied.

"Man, who would've thought that there'd still be this many Awakened Beings covering our island, when it's been so long since we took the Organization down," Helen moaned.

"Alright boys, lock and load! Open fire as soon as they're in range!" Raynor ordered pointing his rifle towards the dust cloud and resting it on the parapet of the wall. Looking through the scope, Jim Raynor got his first glimpse of a Yoma."

"Wow, those things are as ugly as any Zerg I've ever seen," Raynor declared, "alright boys. It's show time. Matt, let's send them that little present we talked about."

"You've got it sir," Horner declared.

A loud noise overhead caused Miria to look up as a half a dozen Banshees soared toward the Yoma. As they passed over the Yoma, the aircraft released a bombardment of bombs into the middle of the Yoma, blowing monsters in all directions.

"We got this under control, Commander," one of the pilots said through her comm. Suddenly, a giant spear like object emerged from the group of Yoma and speared one of the Banshee's causing it to explode on impact. Miria clenched her teeth. She knew the technique to be one of Gakuo's. The Abyssal ones were personally leading their army.

"Fall back! Fall back!" one of the other pilots shouted just before another spear blew her out of the sky. The remaining four quickly began bombarding the area that the spears were coming from. Below them, Gakuo looked up.

"Why you… Gakuo make you hurt for what you do!" he shouted as his eyes flashed feral gold and his body began to expand. Raynor watched in horror as the giant Gakuo rose from the midst of the Yoma army.

"Matt… we're gonna need a lot more fire power," he declared.

"Way ahead of you, sir," Horner replied.

The four remaining Banshee's focused all of their fire on Gakuo causing the Abyssal One to roar with pain.

"I've got him!" one of the pilots shouted locking on to Gakuo's head. Suddenly, the back part of her ship blew away from the front half. Shocked, the pilot turned and saw a man, or at least it looked like a man.

"Farewell," Seren said coldly, grabbing the woman by the neck, snapping it, and then throwing her out the back of the plane. The last thing the pilot saw, was the giant monster, Gakuo, knocking all three of the remaining Banshees out of the sky.

"Such amusing toys the Claymores have," Milleau declared.

"Amusing, perhaps, but they will have to do much better than that if they hope to stop us," Raphael declared, "command or forces to charge."

Raynor watched as the Yoma picked up speed and began charging towards the city.

"Open fire with those Siege Tanks!" Raynor ordered as the Tanks started blasting into the Yoma.

"Focus your fire into the rear lines!" Miria shouted, "that's where the most powerful ones will be!"

"You heard her!" Raynor shouted, "blast 'em!"

While the Yoma at the rear where blown to pieces, the front ones quickly approached the front gate! As they did, however, several of the front ones dropped dead, picked off by Ghost Sniper Rifles. Next, the Marauders began their bombardment, raining down their concussive shells upon the hapless Yoma. Those who were hit by the shells directly were blown to bits while those surrounding them were disoriented and raged about madly, often decapitating their own kind. One Awakened Being leapt up at the wall in an attempt to take down the defenses, but as he did, he suddenly coughed up purple blood and his head fell away from his body. Both the body and head crashed to the ground and Miria landed between the body and the Yoma army.

"This is the moment of truth, my warriors!" she shouted as her warriors joined her, "charge!" Gunfire blared from the bunkers on either side of the brave Claymores as they charged out to engage the Yoma, directly.

"Concentrate the Siege Tank fire on that big one! Keep him away from the front! Don't let him get close to Miria and her forces!" Raynor ordered.

Gakuo began to move forward, but was knocked backwards as a Siege Tank shell exploded into him.

"You moron, wait until we get closer. You're nothing but a giant target," Xion declared coldly as Gakuo shrunk back down to his human form.

"I don't know what kind of unusual toys the Claymore's brought to this fight," Seran declared, "but it looks like they've finally decided to show themselves."

"Indeed," Raphael declared, "then I have orders for you Seran. I want you to personally rip the heart out of every last Claymore who now battles our army."

"As you wish my lord," Seran declared as his body began to awaken and he charged at the warring Claymores.

At the battle site, things were going well for Miria's team. Thanks to the support of Raynor's Raiders, the Yoma were beginning to fall back and Miria's team hadn't taken any losses, yet. Suddenly, one of the warriors cried out with pain as a large claw stabbed itself through her abdomen, narrowly missing a vital organ. Miria noticed immediately and responded to her warrior's cry, charging to her aid and knocking her assailant away.

"Seren!" Miria shouted when she realized who the attacker was.

"Phantom Miria," Seren said sound almost happy, "I had hoped I would receive a second chance to kill you."

"All of you stay back! I'll handle this one!" Miria shouted.

"I have a better idea," another warrior declared stepping forward, "why don't you step back and leave this one to me."

"I appreciate the offer," Miria declared, "but…"

"As I recall, this Awakened Being has nearly ended your life once before," the warrior interrupted, "this time, I doubt that he would allow you to escape. You don't need to worry though," she continued stepping up next to Miria. Miria suddenly realized with whom she was speaking. "He is no match for me," Quick Sword Ilena declared confidently.

"Hm, who're you?" Seren asked, "wait a second, never-mind, I know who you are. You're number 4, aren't you. Illane, isn't it?"

"My name is Ilena," Ilena replied.

"Whatever, I really don't care," Seren replied.

"You should. I assume you'll want to tell them who it was who sent you, once you arrive in Hell," Ilena declared.

"Oh, is that right. Well, feel free to try!" Seren declared charging at Ilena. The Awakened Being roared fiercely and released a barrage of slashes at the Quick Sword Claymore. He didn't even see her draw her sword. All he knew was that one moment, his hands were attached to his body, and the next they weren't. Ilena stared at him with cold, calculating eyes and the Abyssal One felt something he had not felt in a very long time, fear.

"Heh, so this is the kind of power that you Claymore's are hiding. I'll admit, I'm impressed, but it won't do you any good in the end. You're… all going… to...," Seren didn't finish his sentence. Again, he didn't even see her draw her sword as the Abyssal One was slashed to pieces by Ilena's Quick Sword attack.


	6. Number 2 Arrives

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

Raphael sensed Seran's demise and shook his head. "Pitiful," he declared, "Seran was destroyed and he didn't even manage to eliminate one of the Claymores."

"We knew better than to expect much from Seran in the first place," Milleau declared, "it makes little difference in the end."

"Seran got killed," Gakuo moaned which caused Zeleta to kick him.

"Quit whining. Seran got killed because he was too weak. If you don't want to end up like him, then you'd better be able to kill all of those Claymores! You're going to bring me that prissy little number 2's head. Got that!"

"I got it Zeleta, I got it! Can Gakuo go kill her now?" Gakuo replied.

"Very well Gakuo. Go, and kill every Claymore. Avenge our brother!" Raphael ordered.

"Yes lord," Gakuo declared as he began to waddle off towards the battlefield.

"Stupid fool. He'd better make sure he kills that dang number 2," Zeleta growled as she watched him leave.

….

Raynor looked down at the army of Yoma still advancing on them. He had to smile a little bit as Kerrigan approached him.

"Brings back old memories, don't it," he said looking back at her.

"I'd honestly rather not think about it," Kerrigan declared firing her Sniper Rifle. A Yoma's head exploded as she did.

"Commander," Matt's voice called out over the intercom, "you've got multiple aerial targets closing in on you."

"You heard him boys!" Raynor shouted down to some men who were just finishing their inspections on their Vikings, "get in the air!"

"Yes sir!" the pilots shouted as the climbed into their combat walkers. There was a loud grinding sound as boosters on the back of the walkers thrust them high into the air and they morphed into combat jets.

"Those Vikings never get old," Kerrigan said as the flying Yoma came into view, "watch this," she said shouldering her Sniper Rifle and pointing it at the Yoma. She pulled the trigger and blew a wing off of one of them, causing it to plummet to the ground with a crash.

"Heh, who needs Vikings," Raynor said as the Vikings flew past him to engage the flying Yoma.

….

Down below, Miria helped an injured Claymore back behind the wall before charging back into the fight. As a Yoma rose up to strike Galatea from behind, Miria roared past cutting the Yoma in half.

"How are we doing!" she shouted.

"We've lost a little under half of our warriors to injuries. We're lucky though. So far, we haven't had any casualties!" Galatea replied, "I'm willing to bet we have Raynor to thank for that! Huh… interesting," she said smiling.

"What is it!" Miria shouted.

"Another one of our warriors has just arrived," Galatea declared as something behind her exploded kicking up a huge dust cloud. As the dust began to settle, a woman's figure became visible through it.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Miria. I came as soon as I got your message," the woman declared turning to look at Miria. The woman was the number 46 warrior, Drill Sword Jean. **(A.N. I'll explain more as to why certain warriors are ranked far differently than their power would rank them in time so please be patient. Jean was brought back to life using the same methods that brought back three number 1 warriors in current Claymore chapters). **

"You're just in time," Miria replied cutting down another Yoma. Suddenly, a massive Yoki signature caught all three of their attention.

"It's Gakuo!" Galatea declared as the hunched-backed man emerged at the front of the group of Yoma.

"I here to kill number two! Where is she!" Gakuo shouted looking at Jean, Miria, and Galatea.

"Number two? I'm sorry, but she isn't here yet," Miria said, though she didn't sound sorry in the least, "you'll just have to settle for us this time."

"You Miria and Galatea! You one and three! You nearly kill Gakuo once before! I make you pay!" Gakuo shouted as he grew to his awakened size.

"Whoa!" Raynor shouted on the wall, "what the heck? How'd that guy sneak up on us!"

"What do we do sir!" a Marauder shouted who was near Gakuo.

"Don't draw his attention to the wall! Leave him to Miria!" Raynor ordered, "if he breaks through our defenses, those Yoma are gonna storm in here and a lot more people are gonna die!"

"Is there anything we can do for them?" Kerrigan asked.

"Yeah, make sure those Yoma don't surround them!" Raynor replied firing back down into the Yoma.

Gakuo fired one of his spears at Miria, stabbing her through the stomach!

"Got you!" he shouted triumphantly.

"You think so?" Miria asked from behind him as her phantom faded, "I disagree." She swung her sword for the back of his neck, but the blade simply bounced off the hard shell! "Darn it, that shell's gotten even harder somehow."

"Miria! He's channeling his Yoki directly into the shell! He's strengthening it!" Galatea shouted jumping away from one of Gakuo's punch attacks.

"Great," Miria said simply as she ducked under another spear, "I hope it's not too strong for Jean to get through."

"If it is, we're in trouble!" Galatea replied.

From a few feet back, Jean watched Galatea and Miria fight while her arm twisted to prepare her signature technique.

"Just hang on, I'm almost there," she said calmly as she closed her feral, yellow eyes to concentrate, 19… 20…"

Suddenly, what looked like a pair of extremely long arms wrapped themselves around Gakuo's arms and pulled on him, preventing him from attacking. Miria looked over to see that Helen had moved in and was using her flexible arms to restrain Gakuo.

"Helen!" Miria shouted.

"Hurry up Jean!" Helen shouted struggling to keep Gakuo back, "I don't know how long I can keep this up!"

"Twenty-one! Hang on Helen!" Jean shouted charging towards her foe. Her arm began to unwind as she did, causing her sword to spin like a drill! "Take this!"

"Now, do what Zeleta told me," Gakuo said closing his eyes.

Galatea's eyes widened with surprise as she sensed Gakuo's Yoki flow. "It's not going to work!" she shouted. She was right! Jean slammed her Drill Sword into Gakuo's armor, but the attack didn't even leave a scratch!

"What happened!" Jean shouted to Galatea.

"At the last second, he focused all of his Yoki into the point of impact, hardening the shell to the point that even the Drill Sword couldn't break it," Galatea revealed.

"Helen! Let go!" Miria shouted.

"I can't! I'm stuck!" Helen replied as she tried frantically to pull her arms free.

"Me got you now!" Gakuo shouted as one of his two free arms reached for Helen's arms.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Helen shouted trying to get free. Suddenly, Gakuo screamed with pain as both of the arms Helen had restrained separated from his body at the shoulder! "What in the world…" Helen shouted as her arms came free and she quickly retracted them. Another warrior landed in front of her.

"That was rather careless of you, Helen," the woman declared as a faint smile showed on her face.

"Heh, am I glad to see you," Helen declared.

"That move of yours was rather reckless. Your shell draws all its strength from the Yoki you put in it. When you moved all of that Yoki to one spot, you made the rest of your armor incredibly weak, but then, I guess you wouldn't be smart enough to realize that, Gakuo," the number two warrior declared turning and facing the Abyssal ones. She then turned her attention to Miria and Galatea. "Sorry I'm late. So, how're we holding up?"

"It's about time. I was beginning to worry you weren't coming," Miria replied, "it's been rough, but we're holding our own fairly well."

"Well that's good," the number two warrior declared smiling, "well, I guess it'll only make things the much better once we deal with this thing," she declared. Having said that, the number two warrior, Teresa of the Faint Smile, turned her attention to the powerful Abyssal one.


	7. Joining the Raiders

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

Raphael clenched his teeth as he felt Gakuo's yoki flickered violently and then vanished all together.

"This raid was foolish… enough, we're leaving now!" Raphael shouted angrily as the remaining Abyssal ones fled.

Back at the Rabona main gate, Teresa and Miria landed side by side as Gakuo's head crashed to the ground behind them. Teresa smiled as the remaining Yoma began to frantically retreat.

"Well, looks like we scared them off," she declared sheathing her claymore.

"Not to mention we were able to take down two of the remaining Abyssal ones. Now only Raphael and the women are left," Helen said laughing. Miria sheathed her claymore as Raynor approached the group from behind.

"I believe we owe our victory today to you," Miria declared, "you have my thanks. Thanks to your men, none of my warriors were killed today. I'm sorry about the soldiers you lost."

"They were happy to help," Raynor replied, "I don't think they'd have wanted it to end any other way. Now, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. I need to know if you have any idea what the Dominion was doing on your planet."

"Right… the Dominion," Miria replied, "first, tell me what interest you have in the Dominion."

"I've got a score to settle with its emperor, Arcturas Mengsk. He's got a lot to answer for, and I intend to see to it that he does. You saw for yourself I'm sure, this sector'd be a lot better off without the Dominion controlling it. However, I wouldn't of thought that they'd come to a remote planet like this. Not to be rude, but your levels of technology aren't exactly modern, and there aren't any resources one this planet."

"Resources? What do you mean?" Miria asked.

"I'm talking about stuff like this," Raynor declared pulling a mineral crystal out of the back of his suit. "These minerals are the raw materials we use to build and power our weapons and structures. Without this, it's a lot harder for us to build our settlements. Due to that fact, your planet, Talderan, has been left alone for a lot of years. That's part of the reason you folks've never heard of the Dominion or anything like that. For some reason, though, Mengsk suddenly found a reason to be interested in your planet. I need to figure out what it is."

"I see. I think I can help you, Mr. Raynor, but before I do… you have to agree to help me one more time," Miria declared.

"What do you need?" Raynor asked.

"I need you to take me and a small number of my warriors with you when you leave this planet. You aren't the only one who has unfinished business with this Dominion," Miria replied.

"I see…" Raynor replied, "well, I think we might just be able to oblige. If you don't mind me askin' though, what is this unfinished business of yours?"

"Let's just say, Mr. Raynor that I think we may be after the same thing."

**Miria's Claymores Command Room: Underground bunker beneath Rabona Cathedral: 30 minutes later**

Inside the hidden bunker within Rabona chapel, Miria explained the situation to Raynor. She told him about how the Dominion had invaded their planet and about how they had kidnapped Clare and taken her off planet. When she finished Raynor shook his head.

"So, that's what he's up to. Sounds like he's got big plans for your girl, Miria. I think you might be right about us being after the same thing. If you Claymore are really half monster, and Mengsk is holding one of you for experimentation, you'd better believe it's in everyones best interest that we get her away from him," Raynor declared.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Raynor," Miria replied, "my comrades and I are coming with you to see to the rescue of our comrade. In exchange for your help with this, we're willing to help you bring down the Dominion."

"You act like it's gonna be easy, but I won't lie. From what I saw of your abilities out there today, I have no doubt you and your girls can be of great help to us," Raynor declared, "welcome to Raynor's Raiders, Miria."

"Thank you Mr. Raynor. First things first, I need to gather some of my warriors together and prepare them for what's coming. With any luck, we'll be ready to leave within an hour," Miria declared.

"Then let's get ready," Raynor ordered, "we don't have any time to lose."

….

It didn't take more than 10 minutes to have 12 warriors volunteered for the mission. When she'd found out Clare had been taken, Jean had been the first to volunteer, followed closely by Teresa, neither of whom had been surprising. What had been more surprising had been when Ilena and Galatea had also volunteered for the mission, though it was likely Ilena was going because Teresa was and Galatea just wasn't looking to have to be in charge while the numbers 1-3 were gone. Helen and Deneve had volunteered quickly as well, followed by Dietrich, whom Miria had known would stick with Helen and Deneve. She had personally requested that Cynthia and Yuma accompany them, but of course it wasn't necessary to ask Tabitha. If Miria was going, so was Tabitha. The brown haired Clarice and her young charge, Miata had rounded out the volunteer squad. While the others were preparing for their mission, Miria was speaking to the remaining single digit claymore who would be staying behind to run things in Miria's absence, Gentle Sword Audrey.

"Are you certain about this, Miria?" Audrey asked.

"This is our only chance to rescue Clare," Miria replied, "we have no choice but to take it."

"I suppose you're right, but I still don't like it. We don't know much about this Raynor guy."

"We know he saved us and this entire city from being overrun by Yoma. That's enough for me," Miria replied. This silenced all of Audrey's remaining objections. Suddenly, the door to the room burst open. Miria sighed. She'd wondered how long it would be before he found her.

"Miria!" Raki shouted, "you have to take me with you!"

"This is going to be dangerous, Raki," Miria replied, "if you go along, there's a very good possibility you could get…"

"I don't care!" Raki replied, "I have to go! I've gotta help Clare! I wasn't strong enough to protect her! I let them take her away! Please, you've gotta let me help rescue her!"

"I'm not going to argue with you, Raki, and I'm not your babysitter. If you want to come, that's your choice. Just make sure you're ready to go in one hour!"

"I will, thank you Miria!" Raki said as he ran off to get ready.

"Are you sure you should let him go with you?" Audrey asked, "I don't care how strong he is, he may not…"

"That boy isn't going to take no for an answer. It'll be easier if we just let him come," Miria replied sitting down, "when it comes to Clare, there is nothing Raki won't do. No matter how dangerous this may be, he will still do whatever it takes to save her. I have a feeling that we may need his resolve before this mission is through."

**Outside Rabona: 1 hour later**

An hour later, thirteen Claymores stood outside the outer wall of Rabona, dressed in their old Organization Claymore uniforms, along with Raki who was just wearing his usual attire with his broadsword strapped to his back. Audrey and Anastasia stood behind them wearing regular clothes, waiting to see their comrades off. It wasn't long, before the monstrous Battlecruiser, Hyperion, came into view. The ship landed a short distance away from the team and a hatch underneath opened up. Raynor walked out wearing a dirty white t-shirt under a black, sleeveless vest and blue jeans. "Well girls, it's about time to go."

"Right," Miria replied turning back to Audrey and Anastasia, "I'm counting on you two to hold down the fort here while we're gone."

"Don't worry about us, Miria," Audrey said reassuringly, "just be careful and bring Clare back in one piece."

"We'll do our best," Miria replied nodding her head. Then she turned and led her forces aboard the Hyperion.

"Well, girls and guy, welcome aboard the Hyperion," Raynor declared, "as long as we're together, you're officially part of Raynor's Raiders."


	8. Hyperion Invaded

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

"Whoa! This thing is huge!" Raki shouted energetically as he followed Raynor and the Claymores through the Hyperion.

"The Hyperion here's seen us through some rough times. She's seen better days, but she's in pretty good shape, considering the fact that she's taken us to Hell and back more than once," Raynor replied patting one of the walls of his ship almost affectionately, "but enough about this old girl. I got someone I think is gonna want to look you all over. Follow me."

"Huh, okay," Helen said casually as the Claymores followed him.

….

Raynor led the Claymores to a large room with a sign over the door that said Armory. Helen's eyes lit up excitedly, "oh wow! Does this mean you're gonna give us cool alien weapons like you've got!"

"Alien?" Raynor repeated as though he'd been insulted, "we're not alien. We're terran, just like you."

"Terran?"

"Uhhh, human," Raynor replied, "Terran's is the name we're known by to most alien species, and it kinda stuck I guess."

"Oh, so there are aliens!" Helen shouted excitedly, "are we gonna get to meet any!"

"If ya do, better hope their Protoss and not Zerg, and even then, no guarantee it'll be a good thing," a deep voice called from behind some machinery. A short man with a thick black mustache appeared from behind the machines. Miria noticed that the man had a metal claw where his hand should have been. "You need somethin' Cowboy?"

"There you are, Swann. I brought the new recruits I was telling you about. I was hoping you could hook 'em up for me," Raynor replied motioning to the Claymores.

"Well there's something you don't see every day. Terrans using swords? Let me guess, you guys are from medieval times, right?" Swann asked mockingly, "seriously though, whatta you want me to do with 'em."

"What you do best, Swann. At the very least, they're gonna need some real armor if they're gonna stay alive long enough to help us," Raynor revealed.

"Heh, no kiddin. No offense, girls, but your armor looks like it's built less for functionality and more for… well… I'd say it, but I think I'd get slapped if I did," Swann declared chuckling.

"This armor is designed for fighting monsters who can tear through the strongest plate armor as easily as you would tear through a thin cloth," Miria revealed, "it's designed with mobility in mind, not protection."

"Plate armor, huh? Wow, you guys really are from medieval times, aren't ya. Sweetheart, we got stuff so strong, it makes that plate armor you were talkin about look like a thin cloth. Trust me, those Yoma things wouldn't be tearin' you apart so easily if you were wearing some of my specially designed Terran armor. Now let's see… I think I've got just the thing for you too. It's armor I designed especially for a new soldier class, the Terran Brawler. A short range, hand to hand combat specialist, meant to be used in combat with Zerg and close combat Protoss units. It offers all the 'mobility' you need while still leaving you with plenty of protection too," Swann revealed walking to a console, and hitting a button. A large crate began to open, revealing a row of blue armor. Raynor rubbed the back of his head when he saw the armor. It was incredibly large and bulky, far more so then the thin, athletically built Claymores.

"Uh Swann…"

"I know, hey, don't look at me. Not my fault we haven't had any dainty little girls signin' on to be Brawler's yet. Give me a day, though, and I'm sure I can modify these things so they'll fit," Swann replied.

"I hope so, 'because there's no way in heck I'm wearing one of those," Helen declared eying the mammoth armor, "you could fit two of me in this one."

"Well, Swann'll take care of that. In the meantime, I'll check with Matt and see if we got any leads as to where the Dominion might have taken your other girl. With any luck, we can…" Suddenly, an alarm began to blare. "Ahh, great, what's going on now?" Raynor shouted running out of the armory. Unsure of what else to do, Miria and her Claymore's followed him.

….

**Hyperion Bridge: 1600 shipboard time: **"Matt, what in the heck is going on!" Raynor shouted bursting onto the Hyperion Bridge.

"We've got trouble sir. A Dominion Battlecruiser is approaching us. From what we've been able to gather, it's the Silver Star. A special Battlecruiser designed especially for Battlecruiser infiltration, and if our recent reports are anything to go by… our old friend, Nova was recently assigned to the ship. Take a guess as to what they're probably after."

"Kerrigan. If Mengsk wants her alive, we're gonna have to fight inside the Hyperion!" Raynor realized.

"If Nova's involved, you can count we're going to be dealing with a large number of Ghosts. Their cloaking could become a real problem fighting within the enclosed space of the Hyperion.

"Darn it! Should've known this was coming!" Raynor cursed, "put the entire ship on red alert! Get everyone to their battlestations and get ready for a fight!"

"What do you want us to do?" Miria asked.

"I don't know. Ghosts are among the most deadly soldier we Terrans have come up with over the years. I'm not sure you can do anything to…" Raynor began but Galatea cut him off.

"What's special about Ghosts? Do they have some sort of unique energy?" she asked.

"What… I guess you could say that, yeah. Ghosts are trained to wield special psionic energy. That's what lets them cloak, as well as what makes them such dangerous opponents," Horner replied.

"Galatea, how did you know that?" Miria asked.

"I can sense it. I can sense their unique energy just as easily as though I were detecting Yoki. There are 12 sources of this energy radiating from the enemy ship, and one of them is far more powerful than the rest.

"That'll be Nova. She's a specialist. One of the best Ghosts in the Dominion," Horner revealed.

"Looks like you could use my help," a voice suddenly said from nowhere. There was a flash of red and a dark skinned man with white, pupilless eyes and long black hair appeared beside Raynor. All the Claymores jumped, except Galatea.

"He has the energy too, but… the energy I'm sensing from him is much darker then the energy from the Ghosts," Galatea muttered quietly to herself.

"My Spectres are ready to eliminate pretty, little Nova and her silly little Ghosts. She neva see me coming."

"How many Spectres do we currently have on board the Hyperion!" Raynor demanded.

"There are 10 on board right now sir," Horner replied looking at his monitors for a few moments.

"Ten Spectres be worth hundreds a Mengsk's Ghosts. You jus leave 'em to ol Tosh," the man declared.

"Ten Spectres worth a hundred of Mengsk's Ghosts, huh?" a woman's voice said as Sarah Kerrigan appeared behind Tosh, spooking even the Spectre, "maybe, but then again, I'm not one of Mengsk's Ghosts. Jim, they're almost to us. The Hyperion'll be a warzone in just a few minutes."

"Alright, time to get ready. Let's give the Dominion a nice, warm welcome. Tosh, I'll leave Nova and her Ghosts to you," Raynor declared smiling a bit.

"You do that, Mr. Raynor. Those Ghosts are as good as dead," Tosh declared smiling wickedly as he disappeared in a flash of red.

"Hey, Miria," Deneve spoke up walking up next Miria, "our opponents here are human. Are we…?"

"Yes. Until our mission is complete, I'm waving our cardinal law. Claymores, until Clare is safely back on our own home planet, you are authorized to kill any humans who stand in our way. Now, I think it's time we showed these Raiders just what their new allies are capable of! Let's move out!" Miria ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Helen shouted energetically as the Claymore's prepared for their first battle with the Dominion.

"Hey, don't kill all of them," Raynor suggested, "one of them might be able to tell us something that'll help find your friend.

"Right," Miria replied leaving the bridge.

….

**Hyperion Access Hall G: 15 minutes later:**

The wall of the Hyperion's access hall began to glow bright red. Within minutes, a large circular portion of the wall fell away as a Dominion docking tube was attached to the Hyperion. Within moments, Dominion marines began to pore onto the Hyperion. The foremost one looked up, just in time to see a giant Claymore fly through the air and embed itself into the helmet of the man next to him! Yuma stood at the end of the hallway, leaned forward as though she had just thrown a heavy object.

"What in the… Shoot her!" the marine shouted pointing his rifle at Yuma! Suddenly, there were several screams from behind him and the foremost Marine jumped as the disembodied helmet of one of his comrades suddenly rolled past him. Suddenly, something long and black wrapped itself around his neck like some kind of snake. At first, that's what he thought it was, until he saw that this snake had a hand holding a sword for an arm. The arm unwound itself, swinging the sword as it did and cutting through the marine's helmet. He fell forward, dead, as Helen and Deneve approached the docking tube.

"Huh, what do ya think, should we go aboard?" Helen asked.

"Our orders are to make sure that nothing comes out," Deneve replied retrieving Yuma's sword and tossing it to the other Claymore, "we're staying put."

"Ah, but that's no fun," Helen replied, "fine."

"Still, I wonder how we're going to detach this thing. There's a big hole in the wall now," Yuma said inspecting the docking tube.

"You can leave that to us, ma'am," a voice called as three Raiders marines approached the three Claymore's, "we'll worry about detaching this docking tube. It'll only take a few minutes then you can go help elsewhere. Hey, get those SCVs up here and start making repairs!" one of the Marines ordered as several mechanical suits approached the wall.

"Stop yelling, we're coming!" a man shouted from inside the suit. The SCV moved quickly to the fallen wall, propped it up into the hold, and began to weld it back together with its welding arms, severing the docking tube as it did. Within minutes, the tube had been separated and the wall was back in place.

"That's a start, but this is far from over," Deneve declared, "Helen, Yuma, let's go!" she ordered as the three Claymore's took off for their next objective.


	9. Specters vs Ghosts

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

"Seal all access points from access halls f and g! Seal off the lab and get all noncombat personnel inside it!" Raynor ordered as his Raiders frantically moved about the ship, making preparations for war.

"Deneve, Helen, Yuma, Cynthia, Ilena, and Teresa are keeping the Dominion marines at bay. The dominion can't keep a docking tube connected for more than a few minutes with them taking them down," Matt declared checking the monitor.

"A couple of minutes is all the time a Ghost needs to get on board! I want the Hyperion's detection systems running at full power. We need to know if a single Ghost sets foot on the ship.

"They haven't yet," Galatea declared, "all of the Ghost energy signatures are still inside the Dominion's ship.

"They haven't moved! Why? Why wait? That doesn't make any sense," Raynor declared.

"She may be trying to lure us onto her ship. Sir, this could be a trap. I think it'd be a good idea to retreat for now. If the Claymores can keep the Dominion forces at bay for ten minutes, I can have the ship prepped to make a warp jump and we can lose them."

"Don't ya even think about runnin' Mr. Raynor," Tosh's voice suddenly called over the communicator.

"Tosh, I'm giving you and your specters an order to stand down. Trying to fight Nova on her own ship is to dangerous. We'd be walking right into her hands!" Raynor ordered.

"I told ya to jus leave little Nova to me. I'll handle her and her ghosts," Tosh declared turning off his communicator.

"Darn it Tosh! I'm ordering you! Stand down!" Raynor shouted, but it was no use.

"What should we do sir? It's your call," Matt declared.

"Galatea keep an eye on Tosh and his specters. We'll let him do this, but if his specters fail, we'll have no choice but to abandon them," Raynor declared.

"Understood," Galatea declared.

"And let me know when Tosh boards. I want to know…"

"You're a little late there commander," Galatea revealed, "I sensed Tosh and his Specters board the Dominion ship quite some time ago."

"He was planning this all along, sir. Guess we really shouldn't be surprised. We are dealing with Tosh after all," Matt declared as Raynor shook his head.

"Captain Miria, I just had a thought," Tabitha said glancing over at her commander, "do you think this woman, Nova, might know anything about Clare's whereabouts."

"She makes a good point sir. The Dominion is going to great lengths to keep their dealings on Talderan a secret," Horner declared.

"Yeah and no one in the Dominion knows more about top secret information then Nova. Get Tosh back on the line. We need Nova alive."

….

"You want Nova alive, ya say?" Tosh said after Raynor had given his orders, "Not gonna be easy Brother. Not even for a Specter.

"I thought your Specters were supposed to be able to do anything Tosh. Grabbing one little Ghost shouldn't be too difficult," Raynor joked which earned him an angry glare from Tosh.

"Killin' a ghost, that be easy. Kidnappin' one and sneakin' her off a Dominion Battlecruiser right under the nose of a ship full a troops… well, let's just say it's a good thing for you you got Specters and not jus Ghosts Mr. Raynor. This job you got for me'd be impossible for a Ghost, but you can trust us Specters to get the job done."

"There we go. Now that's starting to sound more like the Tosh I know," Raynor replied.

"Teresa and the other's still have the docking tubes under control, so you should have plenty of time. Do this job right Tosh, we can't afford any screw-ups," Horner declared, "Right now, Mengsk doesn't know that we've been to Talderan. If Nova finds out, it may cause some problems."

"Understood. Just make sure you got someplace to hold the little Ghost once I bring her back. I doubt she'll be too keen on the idea a bein kidnapped and brought aboard an enemy ship in chains. Best ta be prepared. Tosh out." The communicator screen flipped off for a second, then flipped back on to show Deneve.

"Deneve," Miria said, "how are things out there."

"We're fine, Captain. We're spread a little thin though. It'd help out a lot if we could get one or two more pairs of hands down here," Deneve declared.

"Aren't Jean and your other warriors helping to garrison the Armory?" Raynor asked, "most of my boys are down there now. I think we should get all of the Claymores holding off the Dominion docking tubes. We can't afford giving the Ghosts an opportunity to slip onboard the Hyperion."

"Did you hear that Jean?" Miria asked as Deneve's face moved over to the right half of the screen and Jean's appeared on the left half.

"Yes Captain. Dietrich, Miata, Clarice, and myself will head up immediately," Jean declared.

"Tabitha and I will go too. Galatea, you stay here and keep an eye on those Ghosts. If they start to move, let us know immediately," Miria ordered turning to Tabitha and Galatea.

"I think I can handle that much," Galatea replied, "you just make sure you do what you need to do."

"Kerrigan, where are you?" Raynor shouted into the comm screen. Kerrigan's face appeared on the screen.

"I'm in the Lab access hall. We're just about done securing the lab. Once I'm done, I'll leave my troops here and head out to meet the Claymores," Kerrigan revealed.

"Alright," Raynor replied, "I'll go with you and do what I can. Matt, the second Galatea says anything about the Ghosts moving out, I want to know. Let's go." With that, Raynor, Miria, and Tabitha ran off the bridge.

"We're lucky that the Dominion's Battlecruiser hasn't started firing on us yet," Matt declared, "it's strange though. Why go to all this trouble. What is Nova after?"

….

"We've got the docking tube connected! Get ready to board," a Dominion marine ordered as he stepped into the tube, only to be blown back out by a sniper round. The ten marines panicked and ran to the tube, only to find that it was empty.

"What the heck happened! Where did…! Gahh!" one of the Marines screamed as sniper rounds cut through the air, downing all ten marines. There was a flash of red and the ten Specters all appeared over the fallen marines. Tosh appeared in front of them.

"Alright boy. Mr. Raynor wants little Nova taken alive, but that doesn't mean we can't have some fun with the rest of the ship's crew. Let's do this," Tosh ordered as all eleven specter warriors reengaged their cloaks.

….

"I want a report," Nova ordered a soldier on the command bridge.

"Ma'am, our forces are being decimated by an unknown force aboard the enemy's starship. We think they may be more of the monster women from Talderan, but we can't be sure," the man declared, "no one who's gone aboard has made it back to tell us what's happening!"

"Darn it. I should have known this was a bad idea. Pull out, we'll let Raynor go for now. Tell the helmsmen to break off from their ship!" Nova ordered.

"Ma'am, the control platform isn't responding to our transmissions. We can't get ahold of them!" a woman shouted from a control panel.

"What do you mean they aren't responding! Send someone to see what's going on!"

"Yes ma'am, I'll go take a look right now," a man shouted running off of the bridge. He hadn't been out of sight for more than a few seconds when he suddenly stopped as though grabbed by an invisible hand. He lurched forward and then fell dead, a knife wound in his back.

Nova didn't see anything wrong as two cloaked specters moved onto the Command bridge and silenced her two remaining subordinates, nor did she notice as three other specters moved behind her. In fact, Nova didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at all, until a sudden flash of red in front of her… revealed Gabriel Tosh.

"Long time no see sista," Tosh said as Nova jumped back, "jus give up and keep quiet." Nova reacted quickly, immediately engaging her cloak, but even that wasn't quickly enough. Nova didn't have time to move before the three specters behind her grabbed her. One of them clamped his hand over her mouth, silencing her and preventing her from raising an alarm while the other two pinned her arms and legs.

"We got some friends who got a few questions for ya, Ms. Nova. Be grateful, that's da only reason we're sparing your life," Tosh revealed.

….

"Tosh and his specters are back on the Hyperion, and they have one of the Ghost energies with them. I'm certain it's the one we want," Galatea revealed to Horner when Tosh returned to the ship.

"We're all set to make the jump," Horner declared, "just need to get the last few docking tubes disconnected and we're home free."

"Matt," Raynor called as his image appeared on the comm screen, "we're all clear!"

"On it sir! Focus all guns on the Dominion Flagship. Set firing output to maximum capacity! Keep them at bay! All hands, prepare for warp jump on my mark!"

"You might want to find something to hold on to!" Kerrigan shouted to Miria who grabbed onto a bar sticking out of the wall.

"Mark!" Horner shouted as the ship lurched forward at warp speed. Miria, Teresa, Ilena, Galatea, Jean, and Deneve managed to hold their footing fairly well for their first jump. The others… were all sent sliding across the Hyperion floor.

"Ugh, okay, I really don't like that," Helen declared rising slowly, "I don't feel so good."

"Commander, we've got someone you'll want to talk to here on the bridge," Horner declared.

"On our way Matt," Raynor replied, "let's just hope all of this ends up paying off."


	10. The Renegades and the Protoss

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

**Hyperion Bridge: 10 Minutes later**

The door to the bridge swung open and Raynor, Miria, and Galatea entered. Matt and Tosh were on the bridge with Nova tied tightly to a chair between them.

"Brought ya a present, Mr. Raynor. Hope she was worth all the trouble she put me through," Tosh said.

"Well, I guess that all depends on how willing she is to cooperate," Raynor replied, "and what she knows about the woman who was kidnapped from Talderan."

"Talderan, huh?" Nova repeated, "so you're after little Ms. Clare then."

"How do you know that name!" Miria demanded.

"She told me it. When she woke up after I kidnapped her. Judging by the color of your eyes and hair, I'm guessing you must be one of those super soldier women from Talderan as well. Interesting. I'm guessing you've come to take her home then," Nova replied.

"Then you're the one who took Clare," Miria said distastefully, "where is she!"

"You'd best start talkin' Nova, or I can't predict what Tosh here might do to you," Raynor declared, "where's the Dominion hiding Clare!"

"Emperor Mengsk has ordered that the woman be held on a remote lab on an asteroid just outside the Kandma quadrant. As far as I know, she's still there," Nova declared.

"Okay, I didn't expect it to be that easy. What're you not telling us, Nova?" Raynor demanded.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Raynor. My loyalties still lie with the Dominion, but… I can't just sit by and let the Emperor go through with this," Nova replied.

"Do what? What is Mengsk up to, Nova!" Raynor shouted.

"He's extracting DNA from the woman… in order to make some sort of hybrid Super Soldier, but something went wrong. When he tried to inject the cells into one of our men… he turned into some kind of monster."

"A monster? What're you talking about?"

"An Awakened Being!" Miria realized.

"You know what this is, Miria?" Raynor asked.

"Yes, I do. It's a fate that is all but inevitable to someone who has taken Yoma power into themselves, Awakening. It happens when a warrior loses control of their Yoma power, they end up turning into a monster themselves. In the early days of the Organization which made all of we Claymores, it was almost certain that sooner or later, a warrior would surpass their limit and lose control. What no one knew at the time was that the Organization had discovered a way to minimize the risk of awakening, but had chosen not to implement it, due to the toll it took on the warriors durability. For instance, before I had the procedures implemented to ensure that my Claymore's would not accidentally awaken, Claymore's were able to go for several weeks with very little water, food, or sleep. Now we need to eat, drink, and sleep almost as often as normal humans. The trade off, however is more than worth having to pay to supply my girls with a little extra food, as I'm sure you can guess."

"Interesting, but if you've figured out how to prevent awakening, why would one of the Dominion's test subjects awaken?" Horner asked.

"Since the fall of the Organization a few years ago, no one has made a new Claymore, so the warriors who survived the fall are the warriors who are still currently active. We only add to our ranks when we are discover a hidden Organization facility which has been experimenting on other girls and has turned them into Claymores before we find them, and those new warriors are almost immediately subjected to the procedure to prevent their awakening. You see, when a new warrior is created, even if they're created using Yoma blood that had already been treated, the treatment does not extend to them, and the chances of them Awakening are as high as they were during the days of the Organization. Nova, was the person who was injected with Clare's blood a male?"

"What? Yes, he was," Nova replied.

"I see. Males who are subjected to Yoma blood cannot handle their Yoma power as well as women can. As a result, some males who become Claymores awaken almost immediately."

"And Mengsk is… actually trying to create these things? Is he insane?" Horner exclaimed.

"You have to ask. This is Mengsk we're talkin' about here. He'd do whatever he felt he had to if it meant he got to stay in power," Raynor declared.

"When a person awakens, they become completely uncontrollable, and lose all shreds of their former humanity. They literally become monsters that feed on the flesh of humans. The only cure for Awakening is death," Miria revealed.

"We need to hurry and get to this Asteroid then, sir. Every second counts," Matt declared.

"I know someone… who can help you. You'll need him and his forces if you hope to get into the facility," Nova replied.

"Why would we want any help from you, Nova?" Raynor asked, "for all we know, you could be leading us into a trap."

"I promise you, the man I'm talking about hates Mengsk every bit as much as you do, Commander. In fact, I'm willing to bet you've heard of him. His name is Leon Sanders, and next to you, he's one of the most wanted men in the Dominion," Nova replied.

"Sanders, sir I've heard that name. Leon Sanders is the leader of the 501st Renegades. They used to be an elite battalion of the Dominion army, until they were ordered to put down a case of civil unrest a few years ago by killing all of the civilians in the capital of the problem planet. Rather than carry out the order, Leon and his entire battalion went rouge and eliminated any Dominion strike team that has come anywhere near the planet. They're not as famous as the Raiders, but they're better equipped. Sanders played his hand perfectly and was able to procur the 501st's entire stockpile of weaponry and vehicles, including a powerful Battlecruiser Command Ship known as the White Knight. If he joined up with us, he would make a powerful ally, sir," Matt revealed.

"Sounds like it, but why would you tell us this, Nova? If you're with the Dominion, you sure shouldn't want the Dominions number one and number two enemies joining forces. What's your game," Raynor demanded.

"There is no game, Commander. I am… a member of the 501st," Nova declared.

"You're one of the Renegades? You'll forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe," Raynor declared.

"Believe what you want, Raynor, but it's true. When the 501st departed for the Planet Minorant, Commander Sanders ordered me to stay behind and inform the Emperor of his plans to rebel. That allowed me to maintain the trust of the Emperor and I became the 501st Renegades eyes and ears within the Dominion. In fact, Commander Sanders is already aware of the situation involving Talderan, and he's the one who told me to contact you," Nova replied.

"Dat's quite the story, little sista, but you don't think we're gonna fall for dat, now do ya?" Tosh spoke up, "she's told us what we want ta know. I say we get rid of her now." Just then, an alarm went off.

"Sir, we're receiving an heavily encrypted message, and you're not gonna believe this," Horner declared, "the transmission is being sent from the Planet Minorant."

"Minorant? You've gotta be kidding. Patch it through, Matt." The communication screen turned on to reveal a man with spiked black hair that hung down over a solid green headband. He was clean shaven and the shoulders of a set of dark green armor could be seen at the bottom of the screen.

"Marshall Raynor, how good to see you again. We fought together with the Sons of Korhal back in the day, though I'm willing to bet that you don't remember me."

"I'm guessing you must be Leon Sanders then," Raynor declared.

"Please, call me Leon. Ahh, I see you have one of the women from Talderan with you," Leon said glancing in Miria's direction, "I assume you must be looking for the one called Clare. I heard about her from Nova. It seems we've found ourselves in a rather beneficial predicament Mr. Raynor. You want to save the girl, and I want to get her out of Dominion hands. I believe we can help each other."

"Maybe. Why're you interested in Clare?" Raynor asked.

"Mr. Raynor, do I need a reason to want to rescue a lovely young woman from her monsterous kidnappers?" Leon replied, "Nova should have already filled you in on what Mengsk is doing with that woman. I have no desire to harm the girl, but I also can't let Mengsk continue his experiments, or there is no way of predicting how many people will die as a result. Thus, the only option I can see is a rescue mission to get her out of Dominion hands. If this is something that we are both after, then even better. Mr. Raynor, if you will help me pull this off, then I am prepared to step down as commanding officer of the 501st Renegades and turn over its command, along with the vast amounts of equipment and resources that go with it, to you and your Raiders. With what I have at my disposal, Commander, under your leadership, Mengsk will certainly have good reason to fear you. I don't think it's a hard decision, but I'll give you a moment to think about it if you need to."

"What do you think, Matt?" Raynor asked, "should we join forces with Mr. Sanders?"

"I don't think we can afford not to, sir. Thanks to Nova, he knows more about this installation we're going to be invading then we could hope to. Besides, we can't say no to that much equipment. We'd have the resources of an entire Dominion elite battalion. I think we need to go for it sir," Matt replied.

"Your call, Miria. You wanna trust this guy with the life of your friend?"

"We'll take all the help we can get, Commander. I think we can trust Mr. Sanders," Miria replied.

"Please, Leon," Leon replied, "I'm glad to hear you feel that way. However, there is one thing we must accomplish before we can complete our main objective. I'm sending you some coordinates. I'll meet you there and we can discuss the first step of this operation. I'll see you there." With that, the transmission ended and the screen turned off.

"What'll we do with Nova, sir?" Horner asked.

"Let her sit there til we reach these coordinates. If she's really with Sanders, we'll give her to him when we get there. He pushed a button on the communicator and Swann appeared on the monitor, "Swann, you done with the special 'project' I asked you to work on?"

"Just about Hot Shot. Go ahead and bring them girls down here. I'm just makin a few more minor adjustments and I'll be all finished.

"We'll be down in a minute, Swann," Raynor replied turning off the screen, "Miria, you'll wanna gather your girls. I think you'll enjoy this next part.

**Hyperion Access Hall D: 4 minutes later**

While Miria went to find her girls, Raynor made his way to the armory. As the door swung open into the Armory Access Hall, Kerrigan suddenly materialized in front of him.

"So, where've you been?" Raynor asked.

"Oh, I've been around," Kerrigan replied.

"I take it you were listening in. What's your opinion on this Sander's guy?"

"I actually know him. He was telling the truth, he was part of the Sons of Korhal back in the day. Back then, he was part of an elite group of soldiers known as the 501st. That also happens to be where he got the name for his renegades from. He's… decent. If nothing else, he's an honest man who cares about people. We can trust him."

"Well that's reassuring at least. I'll admit, I'm feeling a little uneasy right now," Raynor revealed.

"I don't think that has anything to do with Sanders. I can feel his presence. He's on board the ship," Kerrigan said calmly.

"He? Who's he?" Raynor asked.

"You'll find out very soon," Kerrigan replied. She was right. No sooner had she spoken then the lights in the access hall began to flicker.

"This looks familiar," Raynor said, "it can't be."

"It can," Kerrigan replied, "and it is."

"Even now, with your humanity restored, your perception has not been dulled, oh Queen of Blades," a familiar voice called from the shadows. Raynor was a little taken aback… as Zeratul, the Dark Prelate, emerged into the light.


	11. Preparations for Rescue

**StarCraft II**

**Rise of the Claymore**

"Zeratul? What're you doin' here?" Raynor asked as Zeratul stepped out from the shadows.

"I fear that I must bring tidings of doom to you yet again, Friend Raynor. An unspeakable evil now threatens our races, and with it's coming, I fear that the entire universe will burn," Zeratul replied

"I think we've had this discussion before. You're still talking about that Fallen One, aren't you? The one from the vision I got from the crystal."

"If only I were, but I fear that this threat is very different, and far more… immediate," Zeratul replied, much to Raynor's surprise.

"It's always something. So are you gonna tell us what it is, or are you just gonna let us guess?" Raynor replied.

"You are already aware of the source of this problem. The woman from Talderan, the one you wish to save," Zeratul replied, "the one called Clare."

"Clare? What's she got to do with this?" Raynor replied.

"Hear me, Friend Raynor, and remember well. Time is of the esscence, the woman must soon be saved, before the threat at hand becomes to great for us to overcome. The time is soon at hand when our two races will once again stand together against a great evil, but your actions regarding the woman Clare, will greatly determine whether or not we will have any prayer of victory."

"What're you talking about?" Raynor asked again.

"All will become clear soon. We will meet again very soon, Friend Raynor," Zeratul declared backing back into the shadows, "En Taro Tassadar." Then, as suddenly as he had appeared, the Dark Prelate was gone, leaving the two Terrans to ponder on his words.

"I hate it when he does that," Raynor declared.

"What do you think he meant?" Kerrigan asked, sounding as uncertain as Raynor felt.

"Whatever he meant, I think rescuing Clare just became even more important. Let's get to the armory. Swann should just about be ready by now," Raynor replied, "he said the time was soon coming that our two races would have to join forces again. That can't be good."

….

"Ahhh, there you are hot shot," Swann said as Raynor and Kerrigan entered the armory. Miria and the rest of her Claymores had already arrived.

"What's up Swann, don't tell me you held the show on my account," Raynor replied.

"I wanted to make sure you got a front row seat for this, Cowboy. This stuff wasn't cheap. I hope it's worth it."

"Trust me Swann, I think it'll be worth it," Raynor replied.

"Alright, your call, I guess. Anyway, sorry it took a little longer than I thought it would. I was almost surprised how hard it was to build something this small, but I think I finally figured it out," Swann declared walking over to a control pad on a large container and entering a code. A large door on the container opened to reveal 11 blue suits of armor, each uniquely designed and each with one of the Claymore's symbols painted in white somewhere on it.

"Hope I got the symbols right. I saw them on your uniforms the last time you came down to visit me, so I thought I'd add 'em for a final touch." Swann declared, "guess I'd better start explainin' what they do. Alright, let's start with Deva. Which one of you is Deva?" The Claymores all remained silent. "Well we're not gonna get anywhere if you're gonna be shy. Come on, which one is Deva."

"There's not a Deva, Swann," Kerrigan said shaking her head, "sure you're not looking for Deneve?"

"Ah, whatever. That's the one, Deneve. Can't expect me to know all their names yet," Swann replied as Deneve stepped forward, "oh good, your Deneve, I was hoping I'd gotten the name right." He pushed a couple more buttons and one of the sets of armor moved forward. It consisted of a thick breastplate and stomach guards, thick armored legs, and thick armored boots, however, there were no arms.

"Uh, Swann, did you forget something?" Raynor asked.

"I didn't forget nothing, hot shot," Swann replied, "I took the arms off after I saw this lady fight in the access halls. Don't know if you noticed, but she has a rather reckless fighting style. A fighting style that resulted in her arm getting blown off two different times. By the way, wasn't pretty for the boys who had to clean that up, seein as how she just left them behind. Now your old uniform just used cloth to cover your arms. Lousy protection, but it's cheap. Obviously, whoever provided you with your previous armor was looking to produce a lot of armor for not a very big cost. Well, this stuff ain't cheap, which means I ain't usin' more of our resources to patch it up when you get your arm blown off on the field and leave the rather expensive armor wherever it falls. I figure since you seem to grow back limbs, I'll just let you get 'em blown off and grow 'em back later."

"Hehe, he got you Deneve," Helen snickered.

"Helena's is next," Swann said.

"Huh, just Helen, there's no a," Helen replied.

"Whatever, you know who I meant," Swann replied moving another set of armor that was built exactly like Deneve's including the missing arms.

"Huh? Hey, I don't get my arm's blown off," Helen whined.

"Your right, you presented a different problem. Your arms stretch like they're made from rubber or something," Swann declared, "honestly, I couldn't find any materials to make arms for your armor out of that was really worth anything, so I just decided to cut costs and leave the arms off on yours too."

"Alright," Helen whined.

"Alright, we'll do the small one next. Mita," Swann said moving a child sized suit to the front. It was built like traditional marine armor over the body and left arm, but the right arm was only covered with a thin, black material.

"Uh, do you mean Miata?" Clarice spoke up.

"Come on Swann," Raynor said jokingly, "when you said you couldn't be expected to remember all their names, I didn't know that meant you didn't remember any of their names."

"I remember the normal names," Swann said.

"Yeah, because Helen is so exotic and unique," Kerrigan replied.

"Hey, I think I just got insulted," Helen whined.

"Perceptive as always," Deneve said coolly which earned her an angry look from Helen.

"Alright, alright, everybody simmer down. If you're gonna fight, don't do it in my armory," Swann ordered. Miata, your armor's simple enough. Right arms thin to allow free movement with the sword while the left arm has slightly heavier armor for protection. Most of the armors are designed the same way, including Tabitha, Clarice, Cynthia, and Dietrich."

"What about me?" Yuma asked curiously.

"You're Yuma, right?" Swann asked, "well, your right arm is actually more heavily armored. I've installed several powerful pistons into the arm to increase the strength of your arm. Since you seem to like to throw your sword, this'll greatly increase your accurate throwing distance. I also built in a magnetic beacon into the hand of the armor. I'll install the second beacon in your swords hilt so that you can activate the beacon to quickly recover your sword during combat."

"That'll come in handy," Cynthia said smiling, "I've always said the only problem with Yuma's throwing is that she has to throw the only thing she has to fight with."

"Well, that won't be a problem anymore," Swann declared. Alright, that means we've got four left then," Swann declared, "and unless I'm not mistaken, you're the most powerful four. I've taken a lot of notes on you girls to make sure I made your armor perfectly. I even asked the Commander what he knew about you. Number 4, Galatea also known as God-Eye Galatea. You've got incredible detection abilities that makes you among the most powerful of your kind, despite the fact that your blind," Swann declared moving a slim suit of armor to the front of the line. This armor was unique in that it was the only one that had a blue mask sticking up that looked like it would cover the neck, mouth, and nose. "Well, if you think your sensing abilities are good now, just wait til you slip this thing on. This armor was built using a prototype technology that amplifies its wearer's usually innate abilities to sense psionic energy from a short distance away. Since you already can sense Psionic energy, though, and certainly not from just a short distance away. I'm betting that this device will amplify your range, letting you sense psionic energy from even farther away."

"So you're saying I will be able to sense things that are even farther away than I already can? Interesting," Galatea replied.

"Number 3, Ilena. Your also called Quick Sword Ilena, am I right?" Swann asked to which Ilena nodded, "good. He said moving armor with thinly armored arms to the front of the line. I used the same pistons I used in Yuma's armor in yours too, but I used a lot fewer of them to keep the armor lighter and more flexible. Hopefully, your arm isn't already so fast that it burns out the pistons, but if it is, I've programmed a detachment module into the suit. All you have to do is use the voice activated detach command and the right arm will be completely detached from the armor in pieces, keeping it from becoming a burden rather than a benefit."

"I see. You've certainly thought of everything, Mr. Swann," Ilena said calmly.

"That's what was have him for," Raynor replied.

"Funny, cowboy. Alright, let's get to the next one. Teresa right? I'm told you're the number two. Funny though, from what I've seen of you, you sure seem like the strongest one."

"She is," Miria replied, "she simply refuses to accept her rightful position as number one."

"Now, Commander Miria, we've had this conversation before. You're the leader, it's only fitting that the leader of a group should sit in its number one spot," Teresa replied casually.

"Well, whatever. Ain't my place to tell you how you should and shouldn't rank your members," Swann replied, "but your armor isn't here, so I'll get to you in a second. We'll move on to number one first." He pushed a button on the panel and moved to the final armor to the front of the line. It consisted only of a blue breastplate, Shoulder plates, forearm guards, a small armored skirt for covering the groin and upper legs, and knee length boots. Miria was surprised when Swann tossed her a black body suit a black body suit with no right sleeve, and a black glove. "You'll wanna wear those underneath this. It's designed to be as light as it can possibly be while still protecting the most important areas. Since you rely almost entirely on speed when you're fighting, I figured it would be best to cut anything that wasn't absolutely essential," Swann declared, "it'll still protect you, but it won't slow you down much."

"Alright," Miria replied, "that will suit me just fine. Thank you, Mr. Swann."

"So what about me?" Teresa asked.

"Right over here," Swann declared walking over to another case that looked to be only big enough for one suit of armor. Hu pushed some buttons and the case opened revealing a thin white body suit.

"This is armor?" Teresa asked.

"That's Ghost Armor," Kerrigan exclaimed, "Swann, what're you…?"

"Ghost Armor still offers some protection while allowing Ghost's maximum freedom of mobility. From what I've seen of Teresa here, that flexibility will be far more important than protection."

"I'm impressed Swann. Not bad, pulling all this together in such a short amount of time, and with so little information," Raynor said.

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, or cheap, but hey, if you say it's worth it, I guess it's worth it. On the bright side, I'm sure it's a heck of a lot better use for our hard earned credits then shellin out for upgrades on them Vulture Bikes."

"Hey, there you go again, Swann. I thought I told you not to go dissing such a classic piece of machinery," Raynor said sounding hurt.

"Yeah, right, hot shot. We've been through this before, personally, I still prefer a bike that doesn't explode when the exhaust clogs up, but hey, if it's a classic, it's a classic."

"Alright, Swann. Show our friends where they can get outfitted. I'm gonna go see how long until we get to the rendezvous coordinates with Sanders," Raynor ordered walking out of the armory.

**Hyperion Bridge: Five Minutes Later**

"How's it goin' Matt," Raynor asked as he entered the bridge.

"We're almost to the rendezvous, sir. Commander Sanders is on the line waiting for you," Horner replied.

"Patch him through," Raynor ordered as Commander Sanders' face appeared on screen.

"Ah, Commander Raynor. Good. Alright, you're probably wondering why I asked you all the way out here, so very far away from the asteroid on which a certain lab containing a certain Claymore is located."

"The thought crossed my mind, Sanders, but I reckon you wouldn't be calling if you weren't about to tell me," Raynor replied.

"Perceptive Mr. Raynor, and you're right," Sanders replied, "the truth is that the coordinates I've sent you are actually that of a Dominion Fueling station, and not just any station, but a station used to restock Dominion Battlecruisers that are send on long missions. There is never a time when there aren't 20 or so Battlecruisers docked in that station, and each one could easily reach our destination, long before we could carry out a successful rescue mission."

"Well that won't do. I'm guessing we need to take care of that then," Raynor replied.

"We could just bombard it, however, there's also a rather unique opportunity here. Twenty Dominion Battlecruisers and all the equipment we will need to keep them operational for quite some time. Rather than just bombard it with our Command Ships, I propose we take a more… direct approach."

"I'm listening," Raynor replied.

"I assume Nova is still with you, correct?" Sanders asked.

"Yeah, she's sitting tight," Raynor replied glancing over at the still tied up Nova.

"Good, Nova, I'm gonna need your help on this. We need Mengsk to believe that we are going to attack anywhere but this particular station. Think you can send the Dominion on another wild goose chase for me?" Sanders asked.

"Convince Commander Raynor to untie me and you can consider it as good as done, Commander," Nova replied.

"That's my girl, and I trust Mr. Raynor will be willing to comply and speed her on her way."

"Alright, Matt. You'd better let her go," Raynor declared as Matt nodded and moved to take care of Nova. "Alright Sanders, what're we gonna do?"

"Simple, Mr. Raynor, we're going to steal every Battlecruiser currently docked at this station, clean out as many of its supplies as we can, and then blow the station to space dust," Leon replied, "simple enough, right?"

"It's never that easy. What's the catch?" Raynor asked.

"Well, there is the fact that the station is heavily guarded by ground forces, making a quick smash and grab virtually impossible, thus my reason for the false information. We'll need every advantage we can get for this. Hold on, I'm uploading our battle plan to you now," Leon replied as a map of battle plans appeared. "The station is designed to be self-sufficient, so artificial mineral supplies and vespene geysers dot the area, each one carefully guarded. However, I've pulled some strings and gained control of one particular Command Center located here," Leon revealed as a red map ping appeared on the screen at a base location. "My 501st forces are already garrisoning the location and beginning resource gathering. We're just awaiting your support. Once you arrive, I'll send in my pilots to commandeer the Battlecruisers. All you have to do is draw the Dominions attention to the base camp for a while until my pilots can commandeer the Battlecruisers. Then we'll pull you from the station and destroy it. Quick, simple, and efficient."

"Just the way I like it, Commander," Raynor replied, "alright. My boys and I will meet you there?"

"What about the Claymore's sir. Should we send any of them with our men?" Horner asked.

"Probably best not to get all 12 of them involved just yet. I'll ask Miria if she'll be willing to send at least 2 with us though. It can't hurt," Raynor replied, "alright Matt. You know what to do, so let's get this done."


End file.
